22 JUNE 17, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Salvatore LaRussa Dance Theatre hosts
public dance festival in Middle Village
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Salvatore LaRussa Dance Theatre
(SLDT) hosted its 12th Queens
Outdoor Dance Festival at LaRussa
Studio in Middle Village earlier
this month.
The free event took place in the
backyard of LaRussa Studio, where
eight dance companies and choreographers
showed off their skills in
front of a limited live audience ranging
from modern to classical dance.
The six dancers of the improvisational
Open Dance Ensemble
created a piece titled “When We
Connect,” highlighting the internal
connection between the body, mind,
and spirit. The dance had taken on
a new meaning after the COVID-19
pandemic, asking humans how they
treated the body, mind, and spirit
connection during isolation and
what they learned from it.
Choreographer Emma Holtzman
explained that they started working
on the piece in January of 2020
and worked on the dance virtually
throughout the pandemic.
Holtzman, who has been dancing
for 20 years, admitted that she
cried when the dance troops met for
rehearsal in person.
“I had gone 14 months without being
in a studio and just being with
people. That first rehearsal made
me cry. It was such an amazing feeling,”
Holtzman said with her fellow
dancers Luca Villa, Devyn Ciccio,
and Sara Pizzi chiming in “that it was
beautiful to be back in the studio.”
Performers Ellen Mihalick and
Billy Blanken of the Sheep Meadow
Dance Theatre danced “Sonata” to
Bach Cello Suite 3 Prelude performed
by Yo-Yo Ma.
Blanken, a choreographer who
founded Sheep Meadow Dance
Theatre in 2016 as a medium for exploring
movement through socially
engaged dance practice with a repertoire
ranging from site-specific
performance art to classical ballet,
shared that on June 22, the dance
company will present an original
full-length evening of dance titled
“Season III: Sleeping Beauty.”
Blanken’s spin on the classic
“Sleeping Beauty” is one of healing
and rebirth combining artwork and
life dance, and the dance company
“is excited to share this living dance
film as the New York theatre and
arts community reawakens after a
challenging year.”
The event, which is supported by
the Salvatore LaRussa Dance Theatre
and the Sanctuary Roosevelt Island,
Susie McHugh + Dancers perform “The Rat’s Lab for the Haunted” at the Queens Outdoor Dance Festival 2021
at LaRussa Studio. Photos by Gabriele Holtermann
will be live-streamed from the Culture
Lab LIC at the Plaxall Gallery,
and audiences can purchase tickets
via Eventbrite.
Other performances included
“The Rat’s Lab for the Haunted” by
Susie McHugh + Dancers, “Exhalation
in Exile” by the Shayna Maydela
Project, “Feet can’t fail me now” by
the Mari Meade Dance Collective,
“About Zamba” by Dance Action,
“Arsenic” by Leigh Ann Gann, and
“Emotion” by Indy Caudle.
SLDT’s artistic director and choreographer
Salvatore LaRussa was
thrilled to announce that the free
dance festival will now happen twice
a year — in June and October — and
that SLDT, which is in its 12th year,
had already secured funds through
the Queens Council of the Arts for
next year.
LaRussa said that they were
transitioning safely back into inperson
classes after a year of virtual
classes.
“We also offer private voice and
piano lessons that we started right
before COVID. And now we’re just
doing more. In the new year, you
will see informal showcases where
we pick five choreographers to show
a work in progress, which would be
inside the studio. And we’re creating
a sort of art collective with other
artists,” said LaRussa, whose dance
company also produces at Alvin
Ailey in Manhattan.
The non-profit, which also receives
support from state Senator Joseph
Addabbo, Council Member Robert
Holden and the NY Department of
Youth and Community Development,
offers dance lessons ranging from
ballet to modern dance and hip hop
as well as play-writing and drama
instructions for students ages pre-K
and up.
For more information about the
SDLT’s academy visit www.sldt.org/
the-academy.
Sheep Meadow Dance Company performs “Sonata.”
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